++Besides telling me abortion is bad,my right-wing emails continue on their Anti-Obama frenzy. He didn't serve in the military.He is presiding over the worst economic recovery since WWII. He is not as good a President as Ike,Reagan, LBJ and Nixon. He is searching for Cecil's killer but not investigating Planned Parenthood. Is Planned Parenthood, the New ACORN?
++Don't leave us! Jon Stewart's last show will be the night of the GOP debate.
++Another right-wing email has Obama letter Gitmo prisoners free on the streets of America. President Obama has developed the plan to empty Gitmo--repatriate one half remaining and sending the rest to SuperMax prisons, where naturally they will escape, setting a precedent since no terrorists have escape prison.
++Thursday, President Obama held his call-in on the Iran deal. Politico says that President Obama is more intense in his lobbying on the deal than any other initiative. Meanwhile AIPAC is running $25 million of ads against the deal and J Street $2.5 million for the deal.
++Nancy Pelosi says she has enough Democrats in the House to sustain a veto when Congress votes to disapprove.
++The House ran out of town for their five week long vacation. They did nothing. They come back to the debt ceiling at the end of October, spending bills sometime,the ISIS war vote,the Iran deal, and #Benghazi!.
++I think the GOP's master strategy is working--I don't care a fig if they don't raise the debt ceiling and let the credit rating of the US get downgraded. I hope Senator Cruz does shut down the government and that will cost all of us $300 million plus.
++Remember the GOP Congress can't work too hard because the Pope is coming. The Drudge Report alerted the conservatives that Pope Francis is the Anti-Christ.
Showing posts with label Closing Gitmo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Closing Gitmo. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2015
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Gitmo and Other matters
++The Closing of Gitmo remains a goal of the Obama Administration after all these years.President Obama has turned to Pope Francis for him to use his clout with countries to resettle detainees as a humanitarian gesture.
++In this year's Defense Authorization Act, President Obama added a very precisely worded "signing" statement where he argued that legislative restrictions on resettling the detainees were an intrusion on his executive powers. He goes on at great length reciting the history of his Administration's efforts to get assistance from Congress on this issue.
++Ruth Marcus for the Washington Post in one of the numerous columns praising the President in the last few days writes about the Obama strategy of closing Gitmo by the end of his second term. Marcus argues that President Obama will painstakingly whittle the numbers of detainees down so that the expense will be too high to justify the current ban on bringing detainees to the United States.
++ The cost is now $3million per detainee per year compared to $75,000 for a SuperMax prison. President Obama's calculus is that as the population dwindles that expense will grow and make it unacceptable for Congress to justify the continued expense.
++The objection to resettlement is that they would present a terrorist threat to mainland America. The detainee now on trial for Benghazi has been camping out only a mile from my house and I don't feel he poses a threat and no one has mentioned him since his capture. He's just not the talk of the neighborhood. I have always argued that they can be relocated to the Naval Brig in Charlestown, South Carolina.
++Gitmo, the Torture program, the record of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan remain issues we as a country have to cope with--some day. Federal courts have been hitting nearly a 100% on convictions of suspected terrorists but the military commissions have yet to yield a conviction.
++Yesterday the United States sent 4 detainees home to Afghanistan and released them to the Afghan's authority.
++ Expect to see drips and drabs of detainees released during the next two years.
++A kudos to Ruth Marcus for actually discussing President Obama's amazing record for judicial appointments. She is right this is a legacy to shape a generation.
++In this year's Defense Authorization Act, President Obama added a very precisely worded "signing" statement where he argued that legislative restrictions on resettling the detainees were an intrusion on his executive powers. He goes on at great length reciting the history of his Administration's efforts to get assistance from Congress on this issue.
++Ruth Marcus for the Washington Post in one of the numerous columns praising the President in the last few days writes about the Obama strategy of closing Gitmo by the end of his second term. Marcus argues that President Obama will painstakingly whittle the numbers of detainees down so that the expense will be too high to justify the current ban on bringing detainees to the United States.
++ The cost is now $3million per detainee per year compared to $75,000 for a SuperMax prison. President Obama's calculus is that as the population dwindles that expense will grow and make it unacceptable for Congress to justify the continued expense.
++The objection to resettlement is that they would present a terrorist threat to mainland America. The detainee now on trial for Benghazi has been camping out only a mile from my house and I don't feel he poses a threat and no one has mentioned him since his capture. He's just not the talk of the neighborhood. I have always argued that they can be relocated to the Naval Brig in Charlestown, South Carolina.
++Gitmo, the Torture program, the record of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan remain issues we as a country have to cope with--some day. Federal courts have been hitting nearly a 100% on convictions of suspected terrorists but the military commissions have yet to yield a conviction.
++Yesterday the United States sent 4 detainees home to Afghanistan and released them to the Afghan's authority.
++ Expect to see drips and drabs of detainees released during the next two years.
++A kudos to Ruth Marcus for actually discussing President Obama's amazing record for judicial appointments. She is right this is a legacy to shape a generation.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
No Drama Obama--Steady As He Goes
++Pew has Obama's approval rating at 49 in contrast to CNN recording it plummeting. After weeks of faux scandals and the NSA revelations,President Obama seems to be just a little less than where he was when he was inaugurated. So far the bombardment from the Right hasn't taken its toll like the Congress' approval, which in Gallup stands at 10%, or Rasmussen's 8%.
++Through the noise coming out of Washington, it is hard to realize that progress is occurring. Joe Biden reported on the actions on President Obama's 23 executive actions on gun control. We are expecting major decisions soon from the EPA on regulating CO2 from power plants and the small decision on microwaves and household appliances are expected to yield greater benefits than advertised.
++A major legacy item is immigration reform. While conservative Republicans continue to play games with the draft bills, Senator Grassley , a major anti-reform Senator, had the CBO score two decades of the bill. He was concerned that the first decade would be favorable but the second would reveal the "true costs". He said the CBO was like God. Surprise! The second decade would save the government about $800 billion, making this a trillion dollar savings.
++President Obama says he will redouble his efforts to close GITMO. There are now 48 prisoners, who have been named, who will remain indefinitely detained.
++Perhaps forced to have the debate, which he said he welcomed, President Obama has announced that the secret court decisions on the NSA might be declassified. On the Charlie Rose show, President Obama defended the NSA programs--there are two--saying that over 40 terrorist plots here and abroad were broken up. The day after the interview, the NSA announced it was considering suspending the collection of data from American phone calls and internet traffic. President Obama claimed there were sufficient checks and balances in the surveillance system within the executive,the Congress and the Judiciary. Since that statement, critics claim the checks and balances are a sham. President Obama also promised to look at declassifying as much of the programs as possible.
++President Obama spoke today at the Brandenberg Gate. Here is promised he would pursue a 33% reduction with the Russians on our nuclear stockpile. And emphasized his concern on nuclear weapons programs in North Korea and Iran. He also spoke about climate change, gay rights and social justice.
++NATO has relinquished military control of the Afghanistan war to the Afghans. The United States announced it would soon negotiate with the Taliban. President Karzai has thrown a shit fit over these bilateral talks.
++Elijah Cummings released the full transcripts conducted by Issa's committee with the IRS personnel and --lo and behold--none of those interviewed believed the white house was involved in tracking Tea Party groups.
++President Obama spoke again of repealing the Authority to Use Military Force Act, which basically declares the United States to be in an endless war against terrorism and has been used to suspend key civil liberties.
++President Obama must be doing better than we give him credit for. The birther nonsense has re-merged in the House and conservative websites are pursuing claims people don't remember him going to Columbia. Evangelical radio stations, as Rachel Maddow showed, now refer to him as Belzebub and evil and claim locust follow him where ever he goes.
++In my mind, the stinker in the equation is increased American involvement in Syria. On Charlie Rose, President Obama was the model of rationality talking about his desire to avoid backing strict sectarian violence and avoiding the slippery slope to massive involvement. Here was a rational, deliberate man speaking of a totally irrational situation.
++The Economist hails the trans-Atlantic Trade Pact that is being negotiated as Obama's lasting legacy. Jared Bernstein writes that this is probably over-hyped.
++When some of us thought, the North Koreans would go nuts this time around, apparently the Chinese stepped on them to begin talks with the United States about de-nuclearization.
++If you would rather someone else as President, you might consider the last House jobs creation bill--the Masturbating Fetus bill, which bans abortion after 20 weeks nationally. At the last minute, they inserted the traditional rape and incest clause. But abortions would only be allowed in this circumstance if the woman reported to the police incest or rape. The name I choose for the bill comes from the observation for a Texas Republican that male fetuses "pleasure" themselves while in the womb. This is now the mainstream of Republican thought. A Republican wrote Talking Points Memo that his females colleagues were appalled by this bill since they were in their 30s and contemplating having kids and normal concerns are about grotesque birth defects that emerge after 20 weeks.
++Bobby Jindal doesn't think that the GOP has to change at all. America will revolt against the state in 2016 and they will rebel against the "leftism" of the Obama administration. Lindsey Graham thinks the GOP is in a death spiral because of demographics. Stay tuned.
++Here in Washington, teabaggers convene to protest against the IRS and intervention in Syria. As 2014 lines up, expect another round of appeal Obamacare,anti-IRS, and isolationist candidates. Will this resemble 2010--another white reaction against Obama's re-election? My gut tells me that they will get some mileage out of these stunts but nowhere near 2010 because the tea baggers have a sorry record of accomplishment in the House and have offended the Senate.
++Through the noise coming out of Washington, it is hard to realize that progress is occurring. Joe Biden reported on the actions on President Obama's 23 executive actions on gun control. We are expecting major decisions soon from the EPA on regulating CO2 from power plants and the small decision on microwaves and household appliances are expected to yield greater benefits than advertised.
++A major legacy item is immigration reform. While conservative Republicans continue to play games with the draft bills, Senator Grassley , a major anti-reform Senator, had the CBO score two decades of the bill. He was concerned that the first decade would be favorable but the second would reveal the "true costs". He said the CBO was like God. Surprise! The second decade would save the government about $800 billion, making this a trillion dollar savings.
++President Obama says he will redouble his efforts to close GITMO. There are now 48 prisoners, who have been named, who will remain indefinitely detained.
++Perhaps forced to have the debate, which he said he welcomed, President Obama has announced that the secret court decisions on the NSA might be declassified. On the Charlie Rose show, President Obama defended the NSA programs--there are two--saying that over 40 terrorist plots here and abroad were broken up. The day after the interview, the NSA announced it was considering suspending the collection of data from American phone calls and internet traffic. President Obama claimed there were sufficient checks and balances in the surveillance system within the executive,the Congress and the Judiciary. Since that statement, critics claim the checks and balances are a sham. President Obama also promised to look at declassifying as much of the programs as possible.
++President Obama spoke today at the Brandenberg Gate. Here is promised he would pursue a 33% reduction with the Russians on our nuclear stockpile. And emphasized his concern on nuclear weapons programs in North Korea and Iran. He also spoke about climate change, gay rights and social justice.
++NATO has relinquished military control of the Afghanistan war to the Afghans. The United States announced it would soon negotiate with the Taliban. President Karzai has thrown a shit fit over these bilateral talks.
++Elijah Cummings released the full transcripts conducted by Issa's committee with the IRS personnel and --lo and behold--none of those interviewed believed the white house was involved in tracking Tea Party groups.
++President Obama spoke again of repealing the Authority to Use Military Force Act, which basically declares the United States to be in an endless war against terrorism and has been used to suspend key civil liberties.
++President Obama must be doing better than we give him credit for. The birther nonsense has re-merged in the House and conservative websites are pursuing claims people don't remember him going to Columbia. Evangelical radio stations, as Rachel Maddow showed, now refer to him as Belzebub and evil and claim locust follow him where ever he goes.
++In my mind, the stinker in the equation is increased American involvement in Syria. On Charlie Rose, President Obama was the model of rationality talking about his desire to avoid backing strict sectarian violence and avoiding the slippery slope to massive involvement. Here was a rational, deliberate man speaking of a totally irrational situation.
++The Economist hails the trans-Atlantic Trade Pact that is being negotiated as Obama's lasting legacy. Jared Bernstein writes that this is probably over-hyped.
++When some of us thought, the North Koreans would go nuts this time around, apparently the Chinese stepped on them to begin talks with the United States about de-nuclearization.
++If you would rather someone else as President, you might consider the last House jobs creation bill--the Masturbating Fetus bill, which bans abortion after 20 weeks nationally. At the last minute, they inserted the traditional rape and incest clause. But abortions would only be allowed in this circumstance if the woman reported to the police incest or rape. The name I choose for the bill comes from the observation for a Texas Republican that male fetuses "pleasure" themselves while in the womb. This is now the mainstream of Republican thought. A Republican wrote Talking Points Memo that his females colleagues were appalled by this bill since they were in their 30s and contemplating having kids and normal concerns are about grotesque birth defects that emerge after 20 weeks.
++Bobby Jindal doesn't think that the GOP has to change at all. America will revolt against the state in 2016 and they will rebel against the "leftism" of the Obama administration. Lindsey Graham thinks the GOP is in a death spiral because of demographics. Stay tuned.
++Here in Washington, teabaggers convene to protest against the IRS and intervention in Syria. As 2014 lines up, expect another round of appeal Obamacare,anti-IRS, and isolationist candidates. Will this resemble 2010--another white reaction against Obama's re-election? My gut tells me that they will get some mileage out of these stunts but nowhere near 2010 because the tea baggers have a sorry record of accomplishment in the House and have offended the Senate.
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